New Schools, New Students, New Levels of Patience

New Schools, New Students, New Levels of Patience

We are mid-way through the semester and presentations, and are already wondering where the time went! At the end of September we got the awesome opportunity to serve Barry Goldwater High School through health class presentations. The teachers went all out by booking the lecture hall and herding in multiple classes each period. Brittany, Brandon, and I bravely suited up and got ready for back-to-back awareness: 7:30am-2:17pm, with a grand total of 18 presentations to 200+ students in a matter of only 3 school days.

We were not prepared for the amount of broken students who ended up walking through though doors. From the scantily clad girls to the defiant boys, there were behavior issues, students that teachers had already given up on, and way too many stories of abuse, addiction, death, and basic survival.

The second day was powerful as the students opened up a lot about their struggles and experiences. They were by far some of the most rowdy and disrespectful group of students we have ever presented to, but they were also some of the most broken. Somehow those things go hand-in-hand.

By the end of our time with them, I was just praying for my own strength to not strangle any kid acting like a turd, or to not fall asleep. The amount of crowd control we had to do made those presentations take more out of me than any other I have ever done. But by the end of that last day, after we had finally gotten to the part where students could respond with what they were going to do to fight sex trafficking, there were 20 students who signed up to start a club on campus. We also heard from 4 students that they knew someone who had been trafficked. And I was finally in a place for God break my heart again. Oftentimes it’s not until we see the impact that we understand the need that was there all along.

With so many students knowing someone this has happened to and so many others who have experienced pain in ways I may never, I can’t help feel that this is one school that God definitely wants us in. Today we actually secured their dates for next semester’s presentations to the second wave of squirly health class freshmen.

Please praise Him for, and pray that we would take full advantage of, all the amazing doors God is opening in this school with the administration, teachers, and parents. Pray for the students, and pray that in all of RLR’s interactions with them, that we would be exactly what they need. Pray for some awesome fruit to come from this!